It was March 13, 2014, my 39th birthday! I would be the big 4-0 in one year. I have alway set goals in my life both professionally and personally. Things were going great in practice, my two kids, Grant and Lily were doing well in Kindergarten and preschool, and my wife, Sue was happy with her position at Yale as a faculty member of the Radiation Department. I had previously been competing in Spartan and Tough Mudder races to fuel the competitive drive I have always needed outside of work and while the races were both challenging and fun, I realized they were also potentially quite dangerous with high risk of injury. Given the fact that my “hands” are extremely important to my career, I knew I needed to find another challenge and make new goals. As I had previously mentioned, weight training and cardio were always a part of my daily activity. Staying fit is a priority and I had been training with a personal trainer for about a year and was very impressed with the focus on proper form with lifts. He was also helping me train for the aforementioned obstacle course races. During this time, I learned the proper way to lift weights. I also began getting tips from some of the other trainers regarding diet and nutrition. What I started noticing very quickly were aches and pains that I use to have in my knees, back and shoulders started to go away once I learned how to squat, how to perform lunges properly, and how a heavy weighted, barbell bench press was not required to develop my chest. I also learned that low carb, Fat free and low sugar foods were not necessarily the answer to a leaner physique. A couple of the trainers at the studio competed in body building competitions and suggested that I give it a try. At first, my answer was “no way”, I could never get into body building. But as i thought about it more, I realized bodybuilding does require tremendous discipline and will power and would be a perfect challenge that I ultimately could not refuse! So, I decided as a gift to myself while turning 40, I would be in the best shape of my life! At this point, I weighed around 165 pounds and was around 18% body fat and had no idea about how much I was about to learn about the body and the science behind nutrition!
